Thursday, January 17, 2008

Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group-ALA

On January 16th, the ALA Council approved the formation of the Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group. The charge for the group, is:To engage those interested in games and gaming activities in libraries and to collaborate with ALA units to support gaming initiatives and programs across the Association. Games, as defined in their broadest sense to include traditional and modern board, card, video, mobile, computer, live-action, roleplaying and miniature games, and gaming activities, including planning and running gaming programs, providing games for informal play, developing a game collection, creating games, development of information and other literacies through games and partnering with other community organizations to support gaming, will be topics for professional exploration. This group is open to allmembers.

Scott Nicholson (srnichol at syr.edu), associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and director of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse, appeared before the ALA Committee on Organization on January 15th as a Designated Organizer with a petition with 149 member signatures to request that the group be started as a channel to bring together librarians of all types to talk about tabletop and digital games.

The Member Initiative Group structure is designed for new topics and creates an ALA organization that lives for 3 years. After that time, if the group is flourishing, it can apply to become part of the ALA's permanent organizational structure as a Round Table. ALA will be creating a discussion forum, blog, wiki, and other methods for the group to begin discussions shortly. More information about the Library Game Lab of Syracuse and updates on the Games and Gaming MIG will be posted here.

3 comments:

Multiplayer offline games are hard to find. I suppose sports games like Madden 2008, Winning Eleven, FIFA 2008, and NBA 2K8 are always your best bet. You can also try Kane & Lynch. There is a cooperative 2 player mode in that game. Splinter Cell Double Agent is another game that might be what you are looking for. Why not just get both consoles? Both of them are great. There is no need to pick between the 360 and the PS3.

Game On: Games in Libraries was created in 2005 as a supplement to the Google LibGaming listserv, a forum for discussion of gaming in libraries.
Please visit http://gaming.ala.org for news about gaming in libraries.

Game On: Games in Libraries was created in 2005 as a supplement to the Google LibGaming listserv, a forum for discussion of gaming in libraries.
Please visit http://gaming.ala.org for news about gaming in libraries.

About Me

Librarian. Mom. Foodie. I'm a librarian who owns an eBook reader and promotes videogaming as the next wave of storytelling. These days, I'm cooking a lot of things from scratch, writing book reviews, editing movie reviews, poking around farmer's market (and lately, eschewing them for going directly TO the farm) and thinking about a CSA for next year, stargazing, running around barefoot in the summer, putting things in Mason jars (dried herbs, flour bouquets, candied nuts, hot tea) and reading. I've stepped back from a wild and crazy travel-filled consultancy and sticking closer to home to raise my daughter (just when I got an invitation to speak in Mayalasia, darn it!)